Page 46 of First Bite
Chapter Sixteen
Iwoke up to total darkness outside and cursed the friggin margaritas again. At least my stomach was feeling normal, and I had no headache. I actually felt great. God only knew what was in the tomato drink that Cole gave me, but the disgusting thing worked. I may have lost the entire day, but the hangover was gone.
I smeared my hand over my forehead and decided to clean up, brush my teeth for the third time today, and go see if the guys had made it back.
Dressed in cotton lounge pants and a tank, I shoved my feet into fluffy slippers and walked out to the well-lit living room. No voices—nothing. I glanced outside to see that the guys weren’t out there. Cole’s little study was empty.
“Where the hell is everyone?” I asked aloud, spinning around confused that I was alone.
“Right here,” Cole said as he walked out of the room opposite of the kitchen. He had white board shorts on, no shirt, and slicked back wet hair. “Sorry, I heard you wake up while I was in the shower. I haven’t had a chance to make any food yet. Do you want some coffee or anything?”
“I’m good. Are there chips or something to snack on?”
He turned to the cabinets, “What are you after?”
I eyed the trail mix just above his head. “That trail mix. Chocolate and peanuts sound just right.”
He grabbed it and slid it to me. “Can I interest you in a margarita to accompany your snack?” he teased.
“Bleh! I didn’t know you were a comedian,” I said dryly as Cole laughed in response to the look of disgust on my face. “Have you heard anything from the guys?”
Cole planted his hands on the slate countertop in front of me. “Yeah, lot’s of moving parts. This nest of vamps is checking out pretty well. It’s a shame they’ve been hidden down here all these years. We could have used them when we were on the run.” He shook his head, and his emerald eyes met mine, “We’ve owned this place for years, so how in the hell did the sire and his vamps move in under our noses, and we never knew?”
I threw a handful of nuts and raisins in my mouth and shrugged. “Maybe they moved in while you guys were hiding out somewhere else,” I said, more curious about hunting down some chocolate pieces in my trail mix. “Besides, how many times have you guys had to move?”
He poured bourbon into a glass and threw the entire contents back in one gulp. “Most of our time has been spent scouring places and nests looking for vamps that would side with us, but that fucker has brainwashed and manipulated so many damn nests and their sires that it’s fucking annoying, to say the least. Always winds up in us killing them, or even worse, not killing them because we can’t alert Enzo or let him in on our plans.”
“How come you guys haven’t just teamed up with some other supernatural thingys to sneak up on the bastard and just whack his head off?”
“If it were only that easy,” he laughed and turned back to the fridge. “All the other supernaturalthingysyou’re talking about aren’t really into taking down a supremely powerful vampire. Enzo may have big ass plans for total domination, but it wouldn’t have a major effect on their lives. Who knows, maybe they’ll all wake up one day and realize changing the balance of things is a bad idea. At least we have witches, warlocks, and a few shamans interested in our cause. Befriending them is like making friends with the wolves though. There is no mutual trust until we both prove ourselves. It can be a struggle because everyone wants to be in control.”
“Wolves—werewolves, I assume?”
“Shifters,” Cole corrected me and absently started chopping vegetables after placing two pieces of meat in a screaming hot pan to sear. “They’re individuals who walk the earth as humans, but they keep mostly to themselves and have communes out in the woods and away from large populated places. They shift into wolf form when they need heightened senses, such as guarding their boundary lines…” he paused and smiled at me, sending a shiver of energy in my stomach. “You really want to know all of this shit?” he had a silly expression that highlighted a dimple in each of his cheeks.
“It might be old news to you, but it’s not to me,” I said as I slid off the stool and opened the fridge, seeing lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and spinach leaves. “Why don’t I toss a salad while you finish telling me.”
“That’ll be good with the tenderloins,” he answered, still chopping away on the vegetables.
“Continue talking about the other supernaturals who don’t give a shit about Enzo and what the psychopath is doing,” I said as I rinsed lettuce.
“Okay. Well, they’ll all involve themselves eventually. It would be nice to have them around right now though, especially since we have you with us. We can’t take any chances with losing you. Period.”
“I get that. So you’ve been on the run since you killed your parents, yeah? How long has that been?”
“Only feels like a few years, to be honest,” he threw the food into a sauté pan with a loud sizzle. “I don’t imagine time feels the same to us as it does to a human. Living day after day with no end in sight tends to blur the lines on the perception of time I guess.”
He looked over at me as I carefully sliced the cucumber—the total opposite of his super vamp professional chef chopping mode. “Do you mind if I ask a personal question?”
“Shoot, I can take it,” I said, focusing on not cutting my finger off.
“You don’t seem too upset about losing your mom. You haven’t mentioned her much since we brought you into this life. Are you suppressing that or is there something I’m missing?”
I stopped cutting and looked at him. “She was a ball and chain around my neck for my entire life, slowly taking me down with her.” I started cutting the lettuce. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that she did all of this for me, but she could have told me something instead of playing the drunk whore my entire life. I feel like I don’t really know her at all, and that’s not just because of her secret but because I’ve never had a sober conversation with her.”
“I’m grateful she didn’t tell you.”
I turned to him. “Since I know you’re shitty at expressing what you mean, I’m going to hope you meant you’re glad I lived a horrible life growing up like that because at least I’m alive.” I squinted, “Yeah?”
